In the field of foot surgery, when a patient is suffering from an ingrown toenail, doctors may perform a surgical operation referred to as “matricectomy,” which involves the removal of part, or in serious cases the entirety of the nail root (also referred to as the “matrix”). The nail root is what causes the nail to renew cells and grow each day. If the nail root is partially or completely removed, there is either limited growth or no nail at all. If the patient has undergone a partial matricectomy, up to two-thirds of the toenail could be missing; in a full matricectomy, there would be no nail at all. The nail bed, which is normally where the nail would attach to the skin, would evolve into skin similar to the rest of the body. In a society that places much emphasis on physical appearance, this deformity may cause embarrassment to the patient from a cosmetic standpoint, for the toe and nail of a person who has suffered this deformity would look markedly different than one would expect.
Prior art has been designed to prevent, correct and/or treat ingrown toenails before or while they cause the surrounding skin to become inflamed and irritated, but these are generally preventative measures. Cosmetic, artificial nails, which cover damaged nails or serve as a prosthesis over the nail bed, are temporary in nature.
Prior art uses orthopedic structures or prosthetic nails as a method of separating the human nail from the skin in order to prevent ingrown nails. U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,656 issued to Barbara Barmore in 1973 describes a device that is placed under the nail to force the ingrown nail to grow upwards and out. U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,433, issued to Juan Garcia-Carree in 1993, discloses a device to correct an ingrown nail by inserting a thin piece of rigid material between the flesh and the problem nail.
The aforementioned patents are methods that are meant to simplify or to avoid the matricectomy necessary once an ingrown toenail has become painful. Unfortunately, these structures do not account for the necessity of aesthetic correction of the deformity after the surgical correction.
Previous designs have disclosed artificial nails, which are glued on directly to the human nail to generally enhance or elongate the nail (primarily for aesthetic purposes in women). For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,487,831, issued to Jaume et al. in 1970, describes an artificial nail with a pocket that fits over the edge of the human nail and is glued on at the base. U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,399, issued to Miruleta Ionescu in 1980, shows a similar device that uses liquid nail glue to attach the nail. Thomas Bryce's U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,160 (issued in 1982) demonstrates a method of forming artificial nails through plaster molds of the finger.
These nails depend upon the user's natural nails to adhere to the digit and perform the method correctly. The consensus among matricectomy patients is that these nails have a tendency to be ineffective for their purposes, due in part to the nails coming off on their own at inconvenient times, such as when the patient is wearing sandals or is at the beach. The resulting embarrassment in the matricectomy patient is due to the deformed nail being in plain view to other people.
Some previous inventions have designed artificial nails for a more functional purpose wherein the artificial section will adhere over a partial nail or nail bed in an attempt to conceal the problem. U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,234 issued to Olayinka Ogunro in 1984, is a mechanism by which an artificial nail is implanted into the nail bed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,678 issued to Bauman et al. in 1991 describes an artificial acrylic nail surgically implanted into the bed by means of three anchors, and the nail is permanently placed into the nail bed. However these structures are put in place permanently and the patient cannot remove the nail at will.
Hence, there is a need for a method of attaching an artificial nail that a) completely covers the deformity of a partial or missing fingernail or toenail due to a matricectomy or other causes; b) does not use adhesives, glues or cements, but provides a more secure fit than the artificial nails that do; c) does not necessitate that the user have an intact natural nail; d) leaves room between the nail bed and artificial nail for hygienic purposes; and e) is able to come off if the user so desires but will not fall off on its own.